<p class="bodytext">&#8220;Moreover I, the <sc>Lordsc>, tell you:<n id="1" /> &#8216;Do not go into a house where they are having a funeral meal. Do not go there to mourn and express your sorrow for them. For I have stopped showing them my good favor,<n id="2" /> my love, and my compassion. I, the <sc>Lordsc>, so affirm it!<n id="3" />

For I, the <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel who rules over all, tell you what will happen.<n id="1" /> I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness, to the glad celebration of brides and grooms in this land. You and the rest of the people will live to see this happen.&#8217;&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">&#8220;When you tell these people about all this,<n id="1" /> they will undoubtedly ask you, &#8216;Why has the <sc>Lordsc> threatened us with such great disaster? What wrong have we done? What sin have we done to offend the <sc>Lordsc> our God?&#8217;

&#8220;I, the <sc>Lordsc>, say:<n id="1" /> &#8216;O nation of Israel, can I not deal with you as this potter deals with the clay?<n id="2" /> In my hands, you, O nation of Israel, are just like the clay in this potter&#8217;s hand.&#8217;

Say, &#8216;Listen to what the <sc>Lordsc> says, you kings of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem!<n id="1" /> The <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel who rules over all<n id="2" /> says, &#8220;I will bring a disaster on this place<n id="3" /> that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it ring!<n id="4" />

So I, the <sc>Lordsc>, say:<n id="1" /> &#8220;The time will soon come that people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Hinnom Valley. But they will call this valley<n id="2" /> the Valley of Slaughter!

In this place I will thwart<n id="1" /> the plans of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. I will deliver them over to the power of their enemies who are seeking to kill them. They will die by the sword<n id="2" /> at the hands of their enemies.<n id="3" /> I will make their dead bodies food for the birds and wild beasts to eat.

Tell them the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all says,<n id="1" /> &#8216;I will do just as Jeremiah has done.<n id="2" /> I will smash this nation and this city as though it were a potter&#8217;s vessel which is broken beyond repair.<n id="3" /> The dead will be buried here in Topheth until there is no more room to bury them.&#8217;<n id="4" />

The <sc>Lordsc> says, &#8220;Do what is just and right. Deliver those who have been robbed from those<n id="1" /> who oppress them. Do not exploit or mistreat foreigners who live in your land, children who have no fathers, or widows.<n id="2" /> Do not kill innocent people<n id="3" /> in this land.

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;&#8216;For the <sc>Lordsc> has spoken about Shallum son of Josiah, who succeeded his father as king of Judah but was carried off into exile. He has said, &#8220;He will never return to this land.<n id="1" />

<p class="poetry">This man, Jeconiah, will be like a broken pot someone threw away.p> <p class="poetry">He will be like a clay vessel<n id="1" /> that no one wants.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Why will he and his children be forced into exile?p> <p class="poetry">Why will they be thrown out into a country they know nothing about?<n id="3" />p>

<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> says,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Enroll this man in the register as though he were childless.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Enroll him as a man who will not enjoy success during his lifetime.p> <p class="poetry">For none of his sons will succeed in occupying the throne of Davidp> <p class="poetry">or ever succeed in ruling over Judah.&#8221;p>

I, the <sc>Lordsc>, affirm<n id="1" /> that I am opposed to those prophets who dream up lies and report them. They are misleading my people with their reckless lies.<n id="2" /> I did not send them. I did not commission them. They are not helping these people at all.<n id="3" /> I, the <sc>Lordsc>, affirm it!&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> said to me, &#8220;Jeremiah,<n id="1" /> when one of these people, or a prophet, or a priest asks you, &#8216;What burdensome message<n id="2" /> do you have from the <sc>Lordsc>?&#8217; Tell them, &#8216;You are the burden,<n id="3" /> and I will cast you away.<n id="4" /> I, the <sc>Lordsc>, affirm it!<n id="5" />

But just suppose you continue to say, &#8216;The message of the <sc>Lordsc> is burdensome.&#8217; Here is what the <sc>Lordsc> says will happen: &#8216;I sent word to you that you must not say, &#8220;The <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s message is burdensome.&#8221; But you used the words &#8220;The <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s message is burdensome&#8221; anyway.

&#8220;I, the <sc>Lord,sc> the God of Israel, say: &#8216;The exiles whom I sent away from here to the land of Babylon<n id="1" /> are like those good figs. I consider them to be good.

&#8220;For the last twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amon was ruling in Judah<n id="1" /> until now, the <sc>Lordsc> has been speaking to me. I told you over and over again<n id="2" /> what he said.<n id="3" /> But you would not listen.

I will bring on that land everything that I said I would. I will bring on it everything that is written in this book. I will bring on it everything that Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations.<n id="1" />

How dare you claim the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s authority to prophesy such things! How dare you claim his authority to prophesy that this temple will become like Shiloh and that this city will become an uninhabited ruin!&#8221;<n id="1" /> Then all the people crowded around Jeremiah.p>

Then the priests and the prophets made their charges before the officials and all the people. They said,<n id="1" /> &#8220;This man should be condemned to die<n id="2" /> because he prophesied against this city. You have heard him do so<n id="3" /> with your own ears.&#8221;p>